


Toy Soldiers

by TimesBeingWhatTheyAre



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Canon, War, h/c, implied PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24089374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimesBeingWhatTheyAre/pseuds/TimesBeingWhatTheyAre
Summary: Of all his brothers, it’s Tommy who changes the most.
Relationships: Finn Shelby & Tommy Shelby
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73





	Toy Soldiers

When Finn is younger, he doesn’t understand.

He’s only a boy when his brothers leave for the war, and he misses them with the abstract recollection of one who knows they ought to be missing something, and can’t quite work out what. He remembers playing with his brothers, remembers wrestling with Arthur and the glee of winning, John refusing to play with him because he’s too old for games, and Tommy laughing as they play pretend with the tiny wooden soldiers.

When they return, Arthur drinks and says he has no time for wrestling. John smokes more, and treats Finn like there’s centuries between them and not a dozen years, and Tommy?

Well, Tommy doesn’t laugh anymore.

Of all his brothers, it’s Tommy who changes the most. Arthur has always been quick to anger and quick to joy, and the difference now is the frequency of his anger (and drinking). John is as eager to be a man as ever, and in some ways, changes the least.

Tommy turns cold. His mouth remains in a flat line where it used to smile at any time of day, and Finn misses his older brother and the games he played. He knows Aunt Polly is worried, because he sees the way she looks at Tommy when they first arrive back from France, and Tommy barely leaves his bed most days.

Finn creeps in sometimes, and stands next to Tommy as he lies motionless in the bed, and looks at the shadows beneath his brother’s eyes, ones that grow even as he does nothing but sleep. One time he brings his toy soldiers in and presses one into Tommy’s hand, making _pew pew_ noises as he makes them shoot each other.

He wants to make Tommy laugh.

Instead, Tommy wakes up with a sudden jerk, and Finn leaps back in surprise, his toy soldier falling to the floor.

“Tommy?” he says quietly, biting his lip in hope that Tommy has woken up to play with him again.

But Tommy says nothing, his eyes wide as they dart across the floor, and to the opposite wall, where they stay fixed firmly.

“I brought you soldiers…do you want to play?” Finn asks, and Tommy grunts in response, laying an arm over his eyes, and Finn swallows his disappointment.

“Okay…” he says quietly, picking up his soldiers from the floor and trotting out before Tommy starts yelling at him, because that’s the worst part of his brother these days.

It’s only later when Finn realises he left his other soldier with Tommy, that he sneaks back in and sees his brother gripping it tightly, like it’s not made of hard wood that presses indents into his palm. He cracks open the door to take it back, and hears Tommy’s shuddering breaths, and Finn stands there and watches his brother cry.

He lets Tommy keep the soldier.


End file.
